VietnamWarBooks.netDedicated mainly to book reviews on the war with a list of the all time top 10 books written on the Vietnam War and much more.

Beautiful Feet BooksBeautiful Feet has published hundreds of books, and is your source for history books. From American Literature Study Guides to Teacher Guides, Beautiful Feet can be your one stop shop for history books. So as you embark on your history through literature, keep Beautiful Feet Books on the top of your list.

World War II Stalingrad Veteran InterviewThe following important interview with Herr Wigand Wüster, a World War II Stalingrad German veteran. Wigand Wuester has written many books on World War II and appeared on U.S. TV shows such as the PBS Special "Battle of Stalingrad."

Lesson Plans on the Revolutionary WarLearn more about Gregory Edgar fascinating historical fiction books geared to the teen reader plus lesson plans on the Revolutionary War -- for classroom use with Gregory Edgar's award winning young adult historical fiction novels, Patriots and Gone to Meet the British.

Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe by Wikipedia - Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Washington, D.C. and there met President Abraham Lincoln on November 25, 1862. Legend has it that, upon meeting her, he greeted her by saying, "so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."

The American civil war was fought in the United States
of America between the northern states, popularly referred
to as the "Union", and the seceding southern states (in
the U.S., The South), calling themselves the Confederate
States of America or the "Confederacy". There is considerable
debate about causes that may have motivated the states to
war, such as state's rights with respect to the federal
government, taxation, and imbalance of trade. But there
is no question that the salient issue in the minds of the
public and popular press of the time, and the histories
written since, was the issue of slavery. Slavery had been
abolished in most northern states, but was legal and important
to the economy of the Confederacy, which depended on cheap
agricultural labor.

The war is also known in the South as the War Between the
States or (now half-humorously) as the War of Northern Aggression.
More obscure or regional names were The War of Southern
Independence, The Second American Revolution, and the War
in Defence of Virginia. Northern sources after the War often
referred to it as the War of the Rebellion.

The states which seceded consisted of Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Several 'slave
states' did not secede: Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky.
Although Kentucky did not secede, it declared itself neutral
in the conflict. Delaware and Maryland were garrisoned by
Union forces throughout the war to prevent their secession.
Missouri's government split, with a Unionist government
in the capitol and a secessionist government-in-exile run
from Camden, Arkansas and Marshall, Texas. The state of
West Virginia was created by the secession from Virginia
of its northwestern counties, and added to the Union in
1863.

It started with Lincoln's victory in the presidential election
of 1860, which made South Carolina's secession from the
Union a foregone conclusion. The state had long been waiting
for an event that would unite the South against the antislavery
forces. Once the election returns were certain, a special
South Carolina convention declared "that the Union now subsisting
between South Carolina and other states under the name of
the "United States of America' is hereby dissolved." By
February 1, 1861, six more Southern states had seceded.
On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution
for the Confederate States of America. The remaining southern
states as yet remained in the Union.

Less than a month later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln
was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural
address, he refused to recognize the secession, considering
it "legally void." His speech closed with a plea for restoration
of the bonds of union. But the South turned deaf ears, and
on April 12, guns opened fire on the federal troops stationed
at Fort Sumter in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor.

A near-immediate march by Union troops on the Confederate
capital of Richmond, Virginia, was halted in the battle
of First Bull Run, whereupon they were forced back to Washington,
DC by Confederate troops under the command of Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston. Major General George McClellan took control of the Union Army of the Potomac
(he was briefly given supreme command of all the Union armies,
but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj.
Gen. Henry Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862.

McClellan reached the gates of Richmond in the spring of
1862, but when Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Campaign,
he was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac. His
successor, John Pope, was beaten spectacularly by Lee at
Second Bull Run in August. Lincoln then restored McClellan,
who won a bloody, almost Pyhrric victory at the Battle of
Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862.
Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia.

While the Confederate forces had some success in the Eastern
theater holding on to their capital, fortune did not smile
upon them in the West. Confederate forces were driven from
Missouri early in the war, holding that key strategic state
for the Union. Nashville, Tennessee fell early in 1862.
The Mississippi was opened up to Vicksburg with the taking
of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri and then Memphis,
Tennessee. New Orleans was captured in January, 1862, allowing
the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well.

The Union's key stratgist and tactician was Ulysses S. Grant,
who won victories at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Mississippi,
and Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out
of Tennessee. Grant understood the concept of total war
and realized, along with Lincoln, that only the utter defeat
of Confederate forces would bring an end to the war. At
the beginning of 1864, Grant was given control of all the
Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the
Army of the Potomac although Meade remained the actual commander
of that army. Union forces in the East faced stalemate at
the battle of the Wilderness and took large numbers of casualties
at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor but Grant was tenacious
and kept pressing the Army of Northern Virginia under the
command of Robert E. Lee. He slowly ground down the Confederate
armies; he laid siege to their forces in the siege of Petersburg
while General William Tecumseh Sherman marched on Atlanta
and laid waste to much of the rest of Georgia and parts
of South and North Carolina.

The war ended in 1865 with the surrender of Confederate
forces. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on
9 April 1865 at Appomattox Court house. Joseph E Johnston,
who was in charge of the Army of Tennessee in in North Carolina,
surrendered his troops to Sherman shortly thereafter. The
last Conferdate land forces surrendered by June 1865. Confederate
naval units surrendered as late as November of 1865.

This war ended with the emancipation of all slaves held
in the Confederate States. Slaves were not freed in the
remaining states until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment
to the Constitution by 3/4 of the states, which did not
occur until December of 1865, 8 months after the end of
the war. A great deal of ill-will among the Southern survivors
resulted from the total warfare practiced during the war
by the Union armies and the "reconstruction" program forced
on the former Confederacy by the Union victors.

Cyndi's
List
- Including over 72,500 Civil War links. Over 60,000
are categorized and cross-referenced in more than 120
categories.

The American Civil War Homepage
- The official National Park Service Civil War Web Site. Offers information on Parks, education, battlefield protection, soldiers and sailors, and African Americans in the Civil War.

American Civil War - Categorized links, general resources, documentary records, and state and local studies. Maintained by Dr. George H. Hoemann, University of Tennessee.

American Civil War - From the University of Northern Texas, this site was created with the intent of linking to as many primary documents from the period of the secession crisis as is reasonably possible, with the goal of shedding light on the causes of secession, hence of the war.

American Civil War - Includes flags, maps and timeline, casualties of the civil war, battles and statistics, women in the war, life stories and people search.

American Civil War Home - Shotgun's Civil War site - including overviews of many different aspects of the war, biographies, battle summaries, photographs, selected official records, and Fox's Regimental losses.

The Civil War - The American Battlefield Protection Program's site for Civil War Battlefields and related issues. On-line publications, features, publications to order, and links to National Civil War Parks.

Civil War Academy - Information about many aspects of the most bloody conflict in United States history.

Civil War Archive - A collection of American Civil War regimental histories, letters from home and diary excerpts.

Civil War at Smithsonian - Examines the Civil War through the Smithsonian Institutes extensive collections. It includes resources, a detailed timeline, and images with detailed descriptions.

Civil War Battles - Repository of information about Civil War battles, people, a timeline, and a summary.

Civil War Soldier - Description of soldiers from each side, timeline of events and key dates, gallery of pictures, and other resources.

Civil War Story - Includes a wide range of civil war related material with over one hundred pages and photos.

Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society - Includes recruiting posters for New York City regiments of volunteers; stereographic views documenting the mustering of soldiers and of popular support for the Union in New York City; photography showing the war's impact, both in the north and south; and drawings and writings by ordinary soldiers on both sides.

Civil War Weapons - Descriptions and photos of Civil War weapons, including small arms, edged weapons, and artillery.

CJ's Civil War - A complete overlook of the War; including maps, indexes, statistics, flags, lists of battles, and photo gallery. Dedicated to the 13th W. Virginia.

Fort Craig - A southwestern fort and a Civil war Battlefield, where Confederate General Sibley fought Union General E.R.S. Canby. A New Mexico historical site.

George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War - The mission of the center is to promote scholarly research war through the development of a database that contains pertinent military, socio-economic and medical data on Union and Confederate servicemen, with initial emphasis on West Virginia's soldiers.

Great American History - Free educational material on the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, site provides an outline, library, and lesson plans.

Intelligence in the American Civil War - The works of Edwin C. Fishel, a noted author in the area of intelligence, reveals covert operations, spies and intrigue gathered from his research on the role of intelligence in the Civil War.

Mason-Dixon Line Civil War Home Page - From authentic 19th century recipes, to medicine, well-researched period clothing and little-known Civil War facts, this web-site captures real life on the home and war-front.

A Year of Glory - A detailed account of the first twelve months of the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee, from his assumption of command on June 1, 1862, to the eve of the climactic battle at Gettysburg.